Music lesson timetable

ZeitFinder helps you turn your students’ availability into a teaching timetable. You define your possible teaching days and time windows. Your students mark when they are available and which times they prefer. The free ZeitFinder solver uses this information to schedule individual lessons of the appropriate length. Optional AI analysis can help with particular requests, timetable changes and design.

Create a scheduling poll Watch video

How is lesson availability entered?

You define the days and time windows when you can teach. Your students mark their available and preferred times by dragging with the mouse on a computer or swiping over the appropriate time cells on a phone. You do not need to propose individual lesson times. ZeitFinder calculates them later from this information and each lesson’s duration.

ZeitFinder product demo on desktop and smartphone

PROCESS

Your teaching timetable in three steps

Create a scheduling poll
Give your poll a name, such as “Piano lessons, autumn term”, and choose your possible teaching days and time windows. Your private admin link arrives by email. Use it to manage the poll and create the timetable later.
Collect availability
Share only the participant link with your students or their parents. They enter available and preferred times without an account. If you enable comments, they can also add requests and notes.
Schedule lessons
Set lesson lengths and your planning preferences. Create the teaching timetable with the free solver or describe your requests in the optional AI analysis. Check the proposal and export it as a PDF or for your calendar if needed.

INDIVIDUAL TIMETABLES

Plan individual music lessons

As the teacher, you set each person’s lesson length during planning, for example 30, 45 or 60 minutes. You also choose whether lessons take place every week or every two weeks. If their availability allows, two students with lessons every two weeks can share the same slot, taking turns each week. Colours and name labels keep the timetable clear. Details such as instrument or lesson level are considered only in the AI analysis.

Without AI

Specialised solver. Free timetable planning.

The ZeitFinder solver is developed specifically for individual timetables. It assigns lessons using availability, lesson lengths and planning settings. Depending on the settings, it considers compact teaching days, additional idle gaps and lesson distribution when assessing plans. Scheduling polls and solver planning are free; no AI credit is needed.

Take participants’ available and preferred times into account
Set different appointment durations, start and end times, and breaks
Depending on the settings, aim for compact days, fewer additional gaps or a different distribution of appointments
Calculate via “Create timetable” and plan again with different settings

Completely free: scheduling polls, the availability overview and direct solver planning. No AI credits are needed. Whether everyone can be scheduled depends on the information and constraints provided.

With AI

Describe your wishes in your own words

Describe planning wishes in your own words, such as “Finish by 5 pm on Wednesday” or “Keep lessons as compact as possible”. AI can use the solver, explain results and edit existing timetables. It can also start directly with a new planning request. Optional AI analysis uses AI credit.

Request new timetables or modify existing plans
Describe requests for teaching times, breaks and compact days as text
Include comments, uploaded PDFs and images in the analysis
Ask for colours, titles and highlights to be adjusted within the existing timetable grid

AI credits required: AI analysis uses AI credit balance even when it calls the free solver. A targeted plan edit is not automatically a new overall optimisation. Check the result and its notices before use.

VIDEO GUIDE

Plan music lessons, step by step

From the scheduling poll and timetable planning to AI analysis and PDF export.

EXAMPLES OF USE

More possibilities for your music lessons

Adjust the design with AI

Ask AI to adjust timetable colours, highlights, titles or labels. Design changes use the existing timetable grid. This lets you change the presentation without having to reschedule lessons.

Upload and analyse documents

Upload PDF documents or JPG or PNG images for AI analysis. AI can use readable information as context for your request, such as information from an existing timetable. Check the extracted content: illegible or incomplete information can limit processing.

Edit existing timetables afterwards

You can use a timetable already created in ZeitFinder as the basis for further AI requests, such as a swap or a move. A targeted edit is not automatically a new overall optimisation. Check availability and warnings: explicitly requested changes may fall outside recorded times.

What are the limitations?

Planning depends on complete information and feasible requirements. Narrow time windows, different lesson lengths or conflicting wishes can prevent a complete solution. Check AI results before use. Documented solver timings apply to specific test cases and do not promise a fixed calculation time.

Speed backed by documented measurements.

The documented comparison with CP-SAT examines constructed individual-lesson timetables with 30 to 60 people. It provides calculation times, test conditions and measurement limits. Timings refer to solver calculation in those test cases; they do not guarantee a response time for arbitrary timetables or AI requests.

In three selected individual examples, ZeitFinder found a valid plan without additional gaps roughly 12 to 27 times faster than CP-SAT.

The measurement was the time to the first valid timetable without additional gaps. The results describe this test series; they cannot be generalised to arbitrary planning tasks.

Solver test cases and measurement limits

What is CP-SAT?

CP-SAT is a powerful optimisation solver in Google’s open-source OR-Tools toolkit. Its applications include complex scheduling and staff planning.

faster than Google’s CP-SAT

In three selected test cases, measuring the time to the first valid timetable without additional gaps. ZeitFinder v1611, test dated 22 October 2026.

How do the planning approaches differ?

Compare with Doodle and Nuudel

The following overview compares the workflows of ZeitFinder, Doodle’s group poll and Nuudel’s scheduling poll. It is based on the linked official product information.

ZeitFinder combines availability windows, automatic timetabling and AI analysis. Turn availability, free-text requests and additional documents into concrete planning proposals, including an individually styled timetable.

ZeitFinder, Doodle and Nuudel compared
Planning approach	ZeitFinder	Doodle	Nuudel
What do you collect?	Available and preferred times within full time windows.	Votes on proposed meeting options in a Group Poll.	Votes on proposed dates and times; text polls are also available.
How is the result produced?	Create suitable appointments or individual timetables with the ZeitFinder solver without AI, or directly with AI analysis instead.	Compare responses and confirm a meeting; calendar invitations are sent automatically.	Compare poll responses and select a date and time.
Especially suited to	Flexible start times, different durations and assigning multiple individual appointments.	Group meetings with proposed options, plus booking and calendar features.	Free, data-minimising scheduling and opinion polls provided by Digitalcourage.
Free-text requests and custom details	AI can include enabled participant comments and custom details in planning, analysing requests alongside availability.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.
Planning in your own words	Tell the AI what you need, such as “Finish by 5 pm on Wednesday”. It can derive planning settings and use the solver.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.
Include PDFs and images	Upload existing timetables or other documents as PDF, JPG or PNG files. AI can use readable information from them as context for your request.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.
Automatically create individual timetables	The free solver assigns individual appointments with different durations. Depending on settings, it considers preferred times, breaks, compact days and as few additional gaps as possible.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.
Refine existing timetables	Ask AI to swap or move appointments in an existing timetable. Colours, titles and highlights can also be adjusted within the existing grid.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.	Not described within the scope of the poll compared here.

Doodle also offers other products and automatic calendar coordination. Reviewed: 26 October 2026.

This comparison covers Doodle Group Poll and Nuudel scheduling polls. Entries refer to these poll types and the linked product information; other products and integrations may offer different features.

Official comparison sources

Questions about planning music lessons

Who can use ZeitFinder for music lessons?

Teachers who want to assign individual students with different availability and lesson lengths to appointments. This page describes individual tuition planning; it does not promise full management of all music school resources.

Do I need artificial intelligence for automatic planning?

No. Scheduling polls and automatic timetable planning with the ZeitFinder solver are free and work without AI credits. AI credit is needed for optional AI analysis, such as text requests, design changes or analysis of uploaded files.

Can ZeitFinder avoid gaps between lessons?

The solver considers additional idle gaps and compact days when assessing plans. Whether gaps can be avoided depends on availability, lesson lengths, breaks and other settings.

Is every timetable edited with AI optimised again?

No. AI can use the solver, but can also make targeted changes to an existing timetable. Check the changed plan and its accompanying notes.

Start your next teaching timetable

Define your possible teaching times and invite your students to enter their availability.

Create a scheduling poll